Ivan Demidov Wins Second to Eastgate In World Series of Poker

Born in 1981, Ivan Demidov is one of the few Russians who have made it into professional poker. He has only been playing poker for two years professional and has already accumulated $6,465,573 in tournament winnings.

Ivan started playing poker in college while he studied mathematics. Like many poker stars, most of his experience has been gained in online play. The transition from internet play to live play is difficult for many because you must learn a whole new aspect of the game: bluffing. In live play, a player’s reactions can set off clues to what type of cards they are holding, but players can also act to what they want their opponent’s to think. Ivan says the transition was hard, but he seems to have done very well.

Ivan planned on participating in the World Series of Poker in 2008. To prepare himself for the event he entered three tournaments before hand; the Zavidovo Open, the WSOPE, and the EPT. He also worked with his friend, professional poker player Alexander Kostritsyn, to gain better skills.

Before this time Ivan had only two previous cashes in live tournaments. In 2006 he won 5th place at the Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Russian Poker Championships in Morocco. In 2007 he placed third in Las Vegas for the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. He played in the NLHE tournament and won $21,710. This brought him close to cash in the World Series of Poker for the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Low Split, but he busted out just before he could get it.

This year, Ivan planned to take on the World Series of Poker head on, and entered into almost all of the events. All the effort led to only one cash-in of $39,854 in a game of $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Rebuys. He won 11th place which got him in to the Main Event. There he became one of the November Nine and was competing for the WSOP bracelet. Many players have spent their entire lives playing poker and have never gotten close to the bracelet. His first day set him behind, but the rookie doubled and quadrupled his chips nearly every day of the tournament for about six days.

Ivan started the November finale in second, with 24.4 million in chips. In the end he made it all the way to second place, but was beat by Peter Eastgate. In the last hand, Ivan went all in with 16.45 million in chips with a pair of twos and a pair of fours. Eastgate had over 120 million in chips and won the hand with an ace through five straight. Eastgate, twenty-two, became the youngest World Series of Poker champion in history and won the first place prize of $9.15 million. Ivan settled with $5,809,595 dollars. He also set a record on being the first person to make it to two WSOP final tables.